The coolest stars

In the last 15 years, sky surveys from ground and space have revealed a whole new population of star-like objects with temperatures from about 2000 degrees down to just a few hundred degrees, well below those of normal red dwarfs (spectral type M). This has led to the creation of three new spectral types: L, T and most recently Y. These cool objects, popularly termed brown dwarfs, have masses less than 7% of the Sun, intermediate between stars and planets. Being unable to burn as normal stars do, they simply cool and fade with time. This talk will describe the new discoveries and explain how astronomers attempt to understand their nature. We will also consider the possibility that an ultra-cool brown dwarf could be our Sun’s nearest neighbour.

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About David Pinfield

David Pinfield did his PhD at Leicester on low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. He is currently a Reader in Astronomy at the University of Hertfordshire where his research includes brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets around cool stars. His work focuses on searching for the coolest, lowest-mass examples of these very faint objects and attempting to understand the physics of their atmospheres. He leads a large European research network looking for rocky planets around cool stars, and works with major near-infrared sky surveys from the UK Infrared Telescope in Hawaii, the new VISTA telescope in Chile, and the orbiting WISE observatory.

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